Report: Detroit Lions' Jeff Backus best LT in NFC North

ALLEN PARK - At the end of every regular season, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Bob McGinn - one of the best beat writers in the country - breaks down the NFC North. Here are some snippets from his well-researched report:

"Last week, executives in personnel from each of the four NFC North Division teams were asked by the Journal Sentinel's Bob McGinn to rank the top three players in the division at each position. They were not permitted to vote for their own players, and none of the comments that follow was made by a scout about a player on his own team. A first-place vote was worth three points, a second was worth two points and a third was worth one point. Asterisks denote unanimous selections."

Comments: Backus, who tied with Clifton and McKinnie in '09, won his first outright title since '02 when Clifton was injured. "Backus played pretty good this year," one scout said. "It surprised me." Clifton has had six firsts plus seconds in two of the past three years. "He's the same to me," another scout said. "Just a steady player. Kind of like Backus. The thing that everyone forgets, this NFC North this year played the NFC East and the AFC East. Every week it was a good pass rusher. For our (tackles) to hold up is a credit to them."

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR: Jerry Angelo (Chi, general manager) and Martin Mayhew (Det, general manager), 2. Angelo also won in 2001, '05 and '06. Mayhew is the Lions' first winner since VP Ron Hughes shared the award in the old NFC Central with four others in 1999.

And this from McGinn's overall assessment ...

"General manager Martin Mayhew, who shared the scouts' executive of the year award with Angelo, signed, claimed or traded for seven key veterans this year alone. Rookie Ndamukong Suh finished second to Aaron Rodgers in the scouts' most valuable player vote.

Maybe the best indicator of the seismic shift in the Lions' personnel is the number of players on the 22-man all-North team. Detroit had eight, two more than it had in the last five years (combined) using Matt Millen's handiwork.

"Detroit is up and coming," one of the scouts said. "They need to solidify the back end of their defense. But if (Matthew) Stafford can't stay healthy ... "